Three Men and an Arrogant Emperor
—Daniel 3 and its relevance for us today (O.T. part 48)
Andrew Fountain – Mar 13, 2022 Click on this slide and then press the spacebar to advance slides: ➜ (or swipe on a touch screen)
Take your mind away from here in Toronto on a cold winter’s day, to a distant land under a hot Persian sun 2½ thousand years ago
Goal
Take this distant story in a distant land at a distant time under a hot sun
and connect it to us right here and now in Toronto
so that it means something very directly and specifically to us
Three Men and an Arrogant Emperor
Background
The story of the statue and the fiery furnace
How it connects with us
1. Background
For centuries the nation of Israel had been turning away from God,
Filling his temple with idols, and breaking all his laws
God patiently sent them prophet after prophet, but they rejected or killed them
Finally God’s patience ran out and the nation is in captivity.
Living in a far land. Discouraged and persecuted.
We have a lot of archeological remains from that time (actually a few years later than this event
We are going to be looking today at King Nebuchadnezzar,
but these images are a few years later in Daniel’s lifetime in the days of King Darius) =
25m x 15m in size, and 100m off the ground
Zoom in: =
Can you guess which is the emperor Darius?
Notice anything about the people in front of him? hands tied, captives
Under his feet is one of his enemies
Flying up to the right of him is a demonic god figure, blessing the king Behistun Inscription
Authored by Darius the Great sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC
The inscription is approximately 15 metres high by 25 metres wide and 100 metres up a limestone cliff in three ancient languages
A life-sized bas-relief of Darius I, the Great,
holding a bow as a sign of kingship,
with his left foot on the chest of a figure lying on his back before him (reputed to be the pretender Gaumata)
Darius is attended to the left by two servants
(Today’s account is about Nebuchadnezzar, who was slightly earlier, but had the same attitudes)
and nine one-metre figures stand to the right, with hands tied and rope around their necks, representing conquered peoples
The divine symbol of Faravahar floats above, giving his blessing to the king. Now let’s go back to the time of our story, and King Nebuchadnezzar is on the throne
There was a generation who were young when they were taken into captivity, and grew up in this foreign land, but held fast to God
One of this generation was young man named Daniel King Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
The run up...
(Eventually Daniel was chosen to be one of the “wise men” in the nation)
Can any of you who know the account tell me what this means?
Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian (Alexander), Roman, Jesus
b.t.w. this is one of the reasons that I am optimistic about the church in this age.
Three Men and an Arrogant Emperor
Background
The story of the statue and the fiery furnace
How it connects with us
2. The story of the statue and the fiery furnace
But then at some indeterminate time later, we read that the king actually built a statue:
Daniel 3:1–2
King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made. It was ninety feet tall and nine feet wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent out a summons to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other authorities of the province to attend the dedication of the statue that he had erected.
Statue: maybe tried to build the one from his dream (must have forgotten what the symbol meant)
90 feet high! 9 feet wide —a 9-story building
Some people might think these are mythological dimensions
But here’s an example of another giant statue from ancient times “Heracles” =
Bright shining gold , burning and dazzling in the sun out in the hot plain .But its no good if nobody sees it,
…officials from all the empire, the whole world would bow.
What message is he trying to convey with this statue
Nebuchadnezzar is the supreme being! Hundreds of civil servants and provincial rulers have arrived, with their servants and retinues,
the music starts, solemnly they all bow to their great emperor.
But three men didn’t bow.
These men had enemies , who hated them and what they stood for. (v8)
They made sure the king knew about it. skip to verse 8 ↓ ↡
He seems a bit surprised that anyone should not bow...
“is it true?...”
He is being reasonable .
He’s not demanding that they stop worshipping their God.
Why, there must be hundreds of different gods in his empire!
They can’t be so conceited and intolerant
as to place their little local deity above the emperor !
Why should they be so exclusive ?
But if they want a showdown, here is the furnace,
We’ll see about which god is stronger” v15e [“and who is the God...”] So here we have these three men, isolated, alone, before angry tyrant.
We know the end of the story… they didn’t
There on the hot plain, with the hot furnace a horrible reminder.
All the officials are watching.
The three men must have been tempted in their hearts to rationalize: any suggestions how?
Is it really that much they are asked to do?
Not worshipping it!
Bowing down slightly to the left
I’m going to think of it as bowing to God
Really it is just a vow of loyalty to the king... isn’t it?
God had put them in these places of authority,
Surely he would not want it all thrown away? Do you ever feel trapped?
You are pinned down by your circumstances, no way out. (Take a moment to consider)
These men must have felt trapped.
The only way out was this unimaginably cruel death .
We know what happened—put that out of your mind.
Yet everyone was watching them.
God himself had been challenged. This was the knife-edge test of faith. Has your faith been tested?
When I first started working in Canada, I didn’t have my PR status
The organization I worked for had got me a work permit, to work for them
Then I saw some ethical problems in the leadership
I was caught!
Should I be a whistleblower, likely lose my job and be sent out of the country
or play it safe? Describe furnace.
=
There it was... Everyone was watching them....
King wants to see their horrible end...
Suddenly he jumps up, astonished,
but it’s not the fact that they are still alive,
not that they are walking unharmed in the middle of the fire , (ropes burned)
but that there are four of them.
and the fourth is ...different. (??)
how amazing that Christ himself should so identify with his people.
Is. 43:1–4
They came out perfectly unharmed.
Everyone was there to see.
Nebuchadnezzar. still did not really understand!!!
but what an encouragement to God’s people!
Here’s another place where this truth is expressed:
Isaiah 43:1–2
Now, this is what the LORD says,
When you pass through the waters, I am with you;
Three Men and an Arrogant Emperor
Background
The story of the statue and the fiery furnace
How it connects with us
3. The story of the statue and the fiery furnace
How can we apply this to us?
We are not in the same position now!
We may suffer terribly through illness, but not the same
I feel that the main point we can learn is this,
crucial to our whole Christian life,
as important to us, here in Toronto in the 2020’s, as out on the hot eastern plain.
This vital question, asked of those three men, is asked of us now:
Connection with us
Does God have the exclusive authority in your life?
Or is he just one of many competing demands?
You have the same decision to make!
These three men ended up with far more.
Does God have The Exclusive Authority in your life?
or he just one of many competing demands
work, family, home, friends, hobbies, career,
all jostling for place and time.
We face the same challenge, but quieter:
no outright worship, just giving a bit more time to other things,
that really belongs to God.
In some ways it would be easier to have a clear-cut test
no white-hot furnace, just having to miss out on promotion,
or status, or moving to a better area.
example of athlete training (exclusive...)
example of Vic saying “I think I’ve figured you out – your work is just a hobby”.
Each of you will have many decisions to make:
if you do give God the exclusive place, he will be with you: Josh 1:9
Jesus Christ said this time and time again when people wanted to follow him
So want to ask you: where in your life right now...
If there aren’t any, you’re not a human being
E.g. Final degree exams on a Monday morning—should I go to church?
If you are not a follower of Jesus today, the choice is the same
He asks for total allegiance
But offers incredible security and hope for the future
These three men ended up with far more.
We read that the King promoted them to higher positions of authority in the Kingdom
Luke 18:28 “See we have left all and followed you”...